


Feel Like a Waterfall

by LydiaArgent



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Fluff, and also cuddling, ladies being awesome and making mischief
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-06 00:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LydiaArgent/pseuds/LydiaArgent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy's extremely annoyed that she's stuck in The Hub after the whole thing in Greenwich, until she has a couple good reasons to stick around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

For the second time in her life, Darcy is sitting in a chair in Nick Fury's office. She shifts, and shifts again, trying to get comfortable while Fury stares her down, and comes to the realization that this chair is deliberately uncomfortable. She glares alternately at the chair, the carpet, and the ceiling before getting over that fact that she cannot keep her mouth shut, well, ever, but definitely not under that glare.

“I was caught up in the heat of the moment, okay, I have no idea what the big deal is!”

If it's possible, Fury's stare intensifies. Darcy feels her insides shrivel, but crosses her arms and stares back.

“Miss Lewis. Are you telling me that you got yourself involved in an interdimensional clusterfuck and became privy to highly classified information 'in the heat of the moment?'”

Darcy blinks before realizing that while she may be unreasonably preoccupied with (and all right, pretty proud of) the fact that footage of her dipping and making out with her intern has been all over the news and internet for 24 hours, this is likely not a pressing concern of Fury's.

“...Right. Right! So, what, is it time for my second foot-high stack of nondisclosure agreements in two years?” Darcy bends over to dig a pen out of her purse. “You know, you could have just sent Expressionless Minion 17 to hover over me in a conference room again, it's like talking at the Buckingham Palace guards...”

“Miss Lewis.” Fury sounds just pained enough that Darcy looks up with a raised eyebrow. “As a friendly reminder, those non-disclosure agreements do not actually have an expiration date.” He pauses, and Darcy's other eyebrow shoots up to her hairline. “An enormous alien spaceship in the middle of Greenwich garners far more attention than the decimation of Nowhere Desert, USA. Your involvement has come to the attention of undesirable parties, and it is strongly recommended that you remain under continues protective supervision until we can establish a safe situation on a more permanent basis.” 

Darcy continues to stare and begins sputtering “Oh no you –,” but Fury talks over her. “You will be remaining at SHIELD headquarters until such time as we believe it is safe for you to do otherwise.” Fury stands up and makes a motion of dismissal, but Darcy hates being interrupted and stays in the stupid chair. 

“Seriously, you're going to arrest me for helping to save 9 worlds? I should be getting a statue! Or at least a medal!” Fury smirks, and Darcy amends “A very small plaque.” 

“Trust me, if you were being arrested, you would not be able to miss it. You are a target, and we do not have the resources to go rescuing rogue interns every other day. Doctor Foster has accepted a temporary placement as a research scientist at headquarters,” Fury looks at her almost kindly. “I'm sure she still need an assistant.”

“Dangling my bestie in front of me, you are cunning,” Darcy sighs. “Fine. Fine! I'd rather go not knocked-unconscious anyway.” And with that, she walks out of Fury's office, irate at being talked down to and quietly dreading months of socially awkward scientists and faceless agents.

***

It takes Darcy 5 hours and approximately 7 thrown elbows to get all of her things moved through the packed SHIELD facility and down to her living quarters, and another 3 re-pack three-quarters of her things to send back to her mother's house that don't fit in the room that nearly dwarfs her freshman dorm room. Sweaty and frustrated, Darcy tries to steel her determination to make the most of a bad situation, but mostly just resolves to stock some snacks ASAP and do some undercover decorating. 

Jane tries to remain annoyed at their SHIELD prison sentence for Darcy's sake, but the new equipment, nearly unlimited funding, and army of fawning underlings makes it hard for her stay the disgruntled course. A week after moving in, Darcy pats Jane on the back and tells her that just because she has competent scientists around her now doesn't mean that Thursday movie night is off. Jane laughs and says she'll be there before running away to get some kid's hands off of her custom-build deep field EM sensor control panel. Darcy tries to ignore how out of place she feels goes off to finish painting her appallingly beige living quarters a highly non-regulation shade of turquoise and Netflix marathon anything that doesn't involve superheroes or shady government organizations.

She'll admit, they have given her access to almost anything she could want – 24 hour cafeteria, gym, small movie theater (which seems to show an alarming amount of The Princess Bride, not that Darcy's complaining), even a fairly cozy library. She figures that with so many lethal humans in one place for often extended periods of time, it makes sense to have a lot of distractions available. Not that she's made a lot of use of any of them. The headquarters is packed with people actually doing their jobs, and wandering about during the day means being on the receiving end of a lot of condescending looks with her “protective custody” security bracelet. For a week Darcy has avoided venturing out in her yoga pants during busiest hours, but is wide awake and doesn't actually want to sit around watching paint dry, so she ventures out to the gym at midnight. The hallways are dimly lit, and as quiet as they ever are.

Darcy swears loudly when she walks through the sliding doors and sees someone get thrown into a wall. The woman crouching low on the map looks sharply up at her, and Darcy's breath catches in her throat. She has red hair and is gorgeous in a way that makes Darcy a bit weak at the knees rather than envious. So of course, her opening line is “Jesus fuck, can you teach me how to do that?!” 

The woman's lips quirk up, and the man picking himself up the floor barks out a laugh. Darcy is trying not to stare, but she's pretty sure she's seen them both somewhere before. 

“We were just about to head out,” the woman replies, eyes still crinkling a little at the edges. Darcy didn't actually expect a yes and isn't disappointed, so she raises an eyebrow and grins when the woman continues “But I'd be happy to take a raincheck.” It's only after they've both left and Darcy has hopped on the treadmill that she realizes the last time she'd seen that face, Black Widow had been riding a Chitauri ship through Manhattan. Darcy facepalms, manages to stay upright on the treadmill, and is profoundly thankful that the Hub is so big and anonymous that the odds of ever running into two superheroes again is vanishingly small.

***

Darcy's sitting alone at one of the small cafeteria tables eating lunch in the middle of the afternoon to avoid the rush. She's holding her book open with one elbow and trying to avoid dropping her (admittedly enormous) sandwich into her lap, and does a seriously embarrassing double-take when Black Widow slides into the seat across from her. 

“Do you mind the company?”

Darcy smiles broadly. “Not in the slightest.” She reaches her hand across the table and brightly says “Darcy Lewis.”

“Natasha.” She has a firm handshake and, if Darcy's not projecting too much, a bit of a smile in her green eyes. She feels her heart start to settle down to a normal rate and realizes she's pretty happy to have someone to eat lunch with. 

They drop hands and sit in silence for a moment, Natasha dumping crackers into her soup and Darcy flailing to find that peculiar mental place that lets her ramble on and on, regardless of situational awkwardness. It deserts her at the worst possible times.

“You're still working with Dr. Foster?”

Darcy is grateful for the opening, and is somehow both floored, unsurprised, and unreasonably flattered that a super-spy-assassin knows who she is. She sighs dramatically. “No, no, she has people with degrees in things like astrophysics running around fetching her coffee and sandwiches now. I, on the other hand, spend my days wandering awkwardly among people several times more useful and more lethal than myself.” Darcy bites her tongue and hopes she doesn't make a face. She's been seeing Jane and much as Jane has time for, she knows that. And she definitely doesn't want to come off as self-pitying, especially not in front of someone she rather desperately would like to impress. She covers with a laughing “On the other hand, I have achieved my dream of doing nothing but reading, watching TV, and committing harmless acts of vandalism all the live-long day. Silver linings abound.” She pauses, and thinks that Natasha doesn't look too appalled at her being too forward so far. “What does a lady who has recently saved the world in the most bad-ass way imaginable do with her time?”

“Oh, I have things to keep me busy.” And with that dismissive answer, Darcy is stuck for conversation and kind of wants to kick herself for being generally tactless. She takes an unrealistically large bite of her sandwich to give her a moment to think of something to say when Natasha apparently decides to cut her some slack. “What are you reading?”

Darcy swallows quickly. “The Fabric of the Cosmos; pretty much theoretical physics for idiots.” Darcy laughs at herself a little bit when Natasha crinkles her nose. “I'd had enough of trying to help Jane while I understood precisely nothing of what she said. I still don't get any of the details, but getting some of the very, very basics at least lets me feel more useful.” Darcy scrunches her eyebrows together. “Well, _let_ me.” With that, she decides it's time to change the topic. Because Darcy doesn't know when to drop things and because she's genuinely curious, “Sorry if I was being a nosey broad before – I wasn't trying to get up in your business, but I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy being suck in Spy Central. So I was curious.”

Natasha seems to consider Darcy for a moment before giving her small, slightly apologetic smile. “To be honest, I'm spending far too much time bullying the projectionists into letting me watch whatever I want in one of the theaters.”

“What have you been watching lately? Movie or TV person?” Darcy's quickly getting over being star-struck and moving on to wanting to get to know this woman for real, so she only belatedly realizes she might be pushing her luck.

“Typically movies, but a friend got me watching Parks and Recreation.”

Darcy fairly squeals with delight and just gives up trying to be cool at all. Natasha actually smiles at her, so evidently it isn't a terrible thing. “I just started season 5 – where are you?”

“Same, actually.”

As long as she's being too forward anyway, “...would you be interested into doing to Parks and Rec-related bullying tonight? If you don't have anything super world-save-y to be doing.” 

Natasha meets her eyes when she answers, and Darcy thinks she might just be in over her head. “I'd love to.”


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy's not sure how it happened that she and Natasha are meeting every night for dinner and TV-watching on a huge screen alone in a theater. She is tentatively thrilled because none of this is what she expected. They talk about TV, about their mutual love of terrible scifi movies, and have somehow managed to trade about a third of their bookshelves. Darcy knows how Natasha smiles (mostly with her eyes and at some truly stupid jokes), and is figuring out how to make her laugh. She also doesn't care if gets her books back. Partly because she loves her new collection of Victorian mysteries, and partly because, well. She just doesn't mind.

She's chewing on her lip on Wednesday when Natasha strolls in with two enormous containers of popcorn and winds her way down the row of seats, Darcy making grabby-hands at her all the way. Natasha sits down next to her and raises an eyebrow.

“These are mine.”

Darcy makes her best puppy eyes and tries not to laugh as Natasha keeps a straight face. After a brief battle which leaves Darcy in awe (although completely unsurprised) at Natasha's keep-away skills, Darcy gives up and starts digging in her bag.

“If I can't take my snacks by force, maybe I can resort to bribery,” as she pops up holding out a jumbo bag of skittles. Natasha actually snorts out a laugh and drops her forehead onto Darcy's shoulder, curling in a bit closer. Darcy's heart does a weird skippy thing as she gently touches her nose to Natasha's hair and hands over the skittles. She notes that Natasha's hair smells like mint before she moves, because awkward head snuggles are possibly not what Natasha signed up for tonight.

Darcy steels herself for a moment after making the snacks trade, and bumps her shoulder into Natasha's. 

“I don't mean to be, you know, super presumptuous about your plans, but I just wanted to let you know that I can't make it tomorrow. It's just that Thursday's been girls' night for me and Jane since like, New Mexico.”

“Hey, no worries.” Natasha slides her hand down Darcy's arm and lets it rest on her hand. “Let me cook you dinner on Friday?”

Darcy grins and turns her hand over to brush her fingers against Natasha's. “And she can cook! I would love to, and by no means am I questioning your mental abilities here, but where on earth are you going to cook?”

Natasha places her free hand over her heart. “The lack of trust in my abilities hurts, Darce. Seven on Friday? I'll pick you up at your room.”

Darcy can feel herself blushing but can't bring herself to mind. Natasha's fingers are still warm against hers. “I'm looking forward to it. Now,” Darcy leans in and lets her hair fall over her shoulder, “are you ready to watch Ben and Leslie get married or what?” 

***

“Oh my god, you've been here two weeks, who is it?

Darcy starts laugh and tries to push Jane off of the couch. They're set up on Jane's office couch with chips and beers and are just settling down to watch the movie. The door is shut with a “conference call” sign posted to keep away Jane's underlings. 

“Oh, what, so now you're a mind reader? Who is what? Who says there's someone?” Darcy buries her face in a pillow “I mean, possibly, maybe, yes, but how the ever-loving fuck did you know that in 30 seconds?”

“I have, in point of fact, met you before just now. I'm a scientist; I am observant. Now tell!” Jane started poking Darcy in the side with her bottle of beer until Darcy sits up, pink in the face. 

“I have no idea if it's a someone, I mean, it's definitely a something on my side.” Jane makes 'go on' hand waving motions at her. “I don't know! She's super smart and laughs at the stupid shit I do and is like, unreasonably pretty and a total bamf and yes, yes, I have it bad, you can wipe that smirk off your face right now please!”

Jane laughs and quietly fiddles with the label of her beer for a moment. “You think you have a chance?”

Darcy sighs, and leans back on the couch to take a drink. “You know, I'm not sure. She's not. . . the easiest person to read, I suppose. I always think I read way too much into stuff. Awkward presumptuousness and whatnot,” She wrinkles her nose at the times she's come to the uncomfortable wrong conclusion trying to figure out the friend-date vs. date-date thing in the past. “But I'm like, 65% sure we have a date tomorrow night.” 

Jane squeals and tells Darcy “Well I'm expecting a full report immediately after if you don't want me to come harass you in the middle of your next one.” Darcy groans “That was one time!” as Jane fairly cackles and starts the movie.

***

Darcy is worried that she spent too much time on her makeup and not enough time on her hair when she hears a knock on her door at 7 sharp. She wasn't sure what semi-mystery possibly-date in a secure government facility was, so she just went with her favorite skinny jeans and heels and a top that makes her rack look awesome (if she does say so herself). When she opens the door to see Natasha in slim black pants and a green silk blouse she is more than glad that she put in the effort, and feels little breathless.

She knows Natasha saw that once-over because she's smirking up at Darcy. Darcy smiles a bit and puts her hands on her hips.

“Well damn, we sure do clean up nice.”

“We do indeed. I love those shoes.” Natasha leans into Darcy's room and gives a huff of laughter.

“I'm pretty sure the huge packet of regulations they provide says that permanent alterations to guest accommodations aren't permitted.”

“Yeah, well, if they're stick me in a government hidey-hole with very little to do they can't begrudge me my entertainment.” Darcy's actually pretty pleased with how the color turned out, and the small collage of pictures of her mother and friends from New Mexico on the wall.

Natasha smirks. “It looks much better this way. How long did you think you'd be stuck here?”

Darcy frowns a bit and Natasha catches the look before she can hide it. She takes Darcy by the elbow and shuts the door behind her as she walks down the hallway. 

They walk toward, and then past the cafeteria and Darcy interrupts with a “Hold on now, I was led to believe that there would be dinner.”

Natasha smiles, but doesn't say anything as she leads Darcy around a corner, halfway down a flight a stairs, and through a door Darcy is pretty sure is meant to be locked. She opens another door at the end of a hallway that seems to be a graveyard for decrepit tables and Darcy actually squeals a little bit.

There's what looks like an unused dining room with a single table set up in the middle, complete with candles and matching cutlery and Darcy is now at least 99% certain that this could be reasonably construed as a date. She whips when Natasha starts to walk past her and catches her hand.

“Natasha...This is absolutely amazing.”

She smiles a bit more broadly. “Well, you learn some tricks when you've been around SHIELD as long as I have.”

“Like secret kitchens and lock picking?”

“Among other things.”

Darcy lets go of Natasha's hand to let her walk toward the smaller industrial kitchen she can see behind a wall. She sits at the table and tries to collect herself a bit. She would love to tell herself that this is any other first date, but knows that that's total crap. But clearly Natasha's into something of what she's been putting down, so she's going to try not to stress out much. Try being the key word there, so she's a touch grateful when Natasha walks out balancing a bottle of wine along with a bowl of salad and a basket of bread.

“So, what is this, retired cafeteria space?” Darcy asks, taking a piece of bread. 

“One of the benefits of hanging around for a while – no one minds if some of the senior agents use this place every once in a while, get away from everyone for a while.”

“Man, do I ever hear that.” Natasha finishes serving and sits down across from Darcy. She's been trying not to stare, but Darcy's never really seen anyone do things as gracefully as Natasha does. She pulls herself together for a minute and continues “I'm so ready to no longer be on shield lockdown.”

“Any ideas what you want to do when you get out?”

“I might, actually.” Darcy pauses and plays with the stem of her glass, and Natasha stops eating and looks up. “Jane was telling me that SHIELD is doing some hiring in their PR division. What with, you know, the high profile alien shenanigans that seem to keep happening. They're asking for some people with experience with science communication.”

Darcy looks up from her glass into Natasha's neutral expression and falters. “I know, it probably sounds ridiculous, considering I'm somewhat not thrilled to be stuck here now. Not that there aren't, you know, upsides,” Darcy smiles to herself without risking a look up, “and I really can't think of another job I'd be better at. I've got the clearance, and I love what Jane does without have to like, actually do science, so...”

“I think it sounds amazing.” Darcy looks up and Natasha's smiling broadly. 

It's just been bugging her, the whole trying to get to know (and all right, flirt with) a spy thing. She watches Natasha get up and go into the kitchen for their main course, and wants to ask why Natasha's been around, what her job is, but she doesn't feel like she can. Not that she'd ever begrudge Natasha her secrets, but there's only so much conversation you can have while tip-toeing around big empty spaces. Darcy's never been particularly careful about not poking at things, and it's just a bit worrying to her that she's being so cautious. That she's this invested.

“Oh my god, did you make lasagna? Are you actually perfect?” Okay, so she's easily distracted from her non-existent-relationship angst. “I am not to be judged for how much of this I eat.”

“We can have our collective food coma together.” Natasha puts a very large piece on her own plate. “I actually got this recipe in Italy, so I make it whenever I want to both show of a little and get to eat lasagna.”

Darcy laughs. “Well, the showing off has definitely worked, although it was totally unnecessary. You had me impressed already.” She knocks her foot against  
Natasha's under the table, and they grin at each other over the candle in the middle of the table. Darcy decides to put off worrying about the details for now.

***

“Auuuuugh.” Darcy is full of lasagna and good wine and has her head in her arms on the table that Natasha's cleaned up.

“Darcy, hilarious as it would be in the morning, you can't actually sleep here.” 

“That's what you think. Moving is more difficult than sleeping.”

Darcy screams and laughs as Natasha throws her over her shoulder. “NOT fair, this is totally unfair, you are like half my size!” Natasha kicks the door shut behind  
her and puts Darcy gently down on the empty stairwell landing. She still has her arms around Natasha's shoulders and feels a bit unsteady in her heels. 

“Thank you for tonight,” she says, tilting her head so her curls fall over her shoulder. “I would offer to cook for you next time, but I don't actually want to give you food poisoning.” Natasha's smiling, and Darcy feels her hands on her hips, but for the life of her she can't stop talking. “I can toast you some mean Pop Tarts though.”

She finally stop talking and quirks up her lip, and they both lean in and their lips touch. It's barely a kiss, and Darcy's painfully aware of the buzz of the fluorescent lights and of Natasha's hands sliding to her lower back as they break apart for a moment. Their bodies slide together and they're kissing for real this time, tongues barely touching and Darcy sucking Natasha's bottom lip for a moment before they break apart.

They stand there breathing for a moment before Natasha strokes Darcy's hips with her thumbs an steps back.

“Have a good night, Darcy.” She moves to go up the stairs, back to her room.

She's halfway up when Darcy finds her head and call out “This Monday, much-less-extraordinary-dinner and movies still on?” 

Natasha pauses, and looks at Darcy out of the corner of her eye.

“Of course.”


End file.
